Augmented Reality Finally Comes to Apple iPhones and iPads

Each year, Apple iPhones and iPads continue to morph into more advanced versions of themselves. In the past, a few of the bigger leaps in innovation included the ability to listen to music on our cell phones (making iPods obsolete), as well as touch-activated identification systems (which may very well one day make the traditional password obsolete). And, as of today, the tech-giant took another big leap forward with the unveiling of their Augmented Reality (AR) applications.

While the AR technology won't be rolled out until their iOS 11 is released next month, it's a very exciting and important step for the 41-year-old company. Dubbed the ARKit, Apple will allow hundreds of millions of Apple devices to become mini-AR machines. What this means for consumers is a whole slew of new and exciting applications to enjoy. By using advanced technology, the built-in cameras will use data from a setting in real time (such as detecting horizontal and vertical planes, as well as the amount of lighting) and create a highly accurate virtual world on the screen.

More importantly, perhaps, is what this means for developers: It's on that side of the business where Apple's announcement will be most significant, for it allows software developers seemingly endless new opportunities to build and roll out any type of AR-capable application they can develop.

Below are a few of the applications that will first roll out this fall when the iOS 11 is implemented on all iPhones and iPads.

GIPHY/GIPHY World:This app will completely revolutionize sending GIFs via text message. Soon, users will be able to use the world around you as a canvas to embed GIFs before sending them off to friends and family.

The IKEA/IKEA Place application allows users to be the best interior designers they can be in real time.

IKEA/IKEA Place:What's more frustrating than buying furniture for your home only to realize it didn't work out as you had expected? If that has happened to you before, the new IKEA PLACE application will soon be here to help. The technology works by allowing you to virtually see how a sofa, lamp, or rug would look in any given room in real time. You can even move the product to confirm it's true-to-scale, ensuring you're the best interior designer you can possibly be.

Touch Press/The Very Hungry Caterpillar:Were you a fan of the game, The Very Hungry Caterpillar™? Maybe you still are? Regardless, this app will place a virtual caterpillar right on your screen, surrounded by the real life scenes you are living in, no matter where you are in the world.

Apple users will soon be able to fight zombies in their own living room or neighborhood with the application, AMC & Next Games/The Walking Dead: Our World.

AMC & Next Games/The Walking Dead: Our World:Users will believe zombies are walking throughout their home with this new application. While this technology is only on the screen, this location-based AR mobile game will allow users to walk through their home, local streets and parks, while fighting to save the world from a zombie apocalypse.

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